Updates and Announcements
 
Evening Meetings: The next evening meeting is on January 26th  at 5:30 PM at Our Lady of the Pine Catholic Church. 
 
285 Backpack Project: A Sign-Up Genius is available to volunteer to assist. To sign up, go to: ​​https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040c48afa823aa8-back 
 
Boulder County Fires: The District has set up a donation fund that can be accessed from the District website or Facebook page - we will be looking for ways in which we can respond to the affected communities.
 
District Marketing Video: Has been postponed. A new date will be communicated once it has been decided.
 
Youth Exchange: Still moving forward and have ten outbound students. Five of them are returning from years past where things were canceled because of the pandemic. Rotary International is going to make another decision in March for things to continue  moving forward.
 
District Governor: Rotary District 5450 is accepting nominations for our 2024-2025 District Governor. Are you looking for a challenging, rewarding leadership position to help inspire Rotarians to do great things? Click Here to learn more.
 
Hybrid Meeting Set-Up: Amanda is asking for volunteers to sign up to help with the morning setup for the hybrid meetings. The ask is to sign up for a month, help set up a room, and help break down the room so it’s not just on the President to do this. If you are interested in signing up for a month, please let Amanda know. 
 
Board Update: Last Monday the board decided to give bonuses to all of the nonprofits that partnered with us last year. With those bonuses, the boutique in Bailey has now given away over $100K back to our community! 
 
 
Upcoming Events:
 
White Elephant Party: January 18th at the MRC. 
 
Mind Blown Trivia Night: Conifer High School Parent Teacher Association is hosting this year's Mind Blown Trivia Night on Friday, February 11, 2022 at Our Lady of the Pines Church from 6:00 until 10:00 p.m. The event flyer can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/mv9rauza
 
Area 8 Social: Planned for April 6 2022. 
 
Home & Garden Show: To be held on April 9th and 10th at Conifer HS. 
 
Resilience 1220: Click here to view their monthly event calendar for January and February. 

 
 
Meeting Program: Heather Aberg, LCSW Resilience1220 https://www.resilience1220.org/ 
 
  • Resilience 1220  is an organization that provides free counseling and mental health programs for the communities west of Denver.
  • It started as a response to a suicide that happened in Bergen Park, and then a couple of others that followed soon after.
  • The project was started to ultimately prevent suicides but more than that, to help build resilience. 
  • Available for kids ages 12-20 the hope is to teach skills that help with dealing with adversity, breakups, stress, family issues, how to advocate for yourself, how to set boundaries, and more.
  • They offer ten free counseling sessions to youth spanning from Platte Canyon high school and middle school through Conifer, Evergreen, Clear Creek, Georgetown, Blackhawk, and Rollinsville.
  • There are now 35 therapists who recently started getting paid $50 per session. Therapists have always come to them and offered to take a certain number of cases based on their availability. 
  • Suicides are up, seeing lots of anger and outbursts, fatigue, increase depression anxiety, self harm, eating disorders, substance use - even in caregivers and parents. 
  • As a part of the effects of the pandemic, mental health has had a huge spike. The pandemic has had a major impact on youth looking to launch and start their independence. 
  • State of emergency declared last summer for youth mental health because suicide is leading cause of death for youth in CO, particularly JeffCo.
  • There are a lot of barriers to service, it is hard to find support, expensive, finding a match can be hard, traveling to therapy is also a challenge.
  • Burnout rate among therapists is also high, response time can be delayed, making it even harder to find someone. 
  • In 2021 they provided 1767 counseling sessions at no cost to youth, parents or teachers, held over 165 groups, and reached 1185 people in outreach. Youth and families are now realizing the benefits of counseling and learning!
  • How can we as adults help?
    • Engage with youth (not about school)
    • Be vulnerable - talk about your struggles (modeling)
    • Be kind to ourselves and others
    • Feel gratitude
    • Self care
    • Connect and grow
    • Serve
  • For more information, please visit: https://www.resilience1220.org/ 
 
Guest: Heather Aberg from Resilience1220, welcome!